Helping school children with learning materials

By Joseph Mchekadona

30th January 2012

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Teachers and pupils of Gerezani primary school in Dar Es Salaam can now sit back and relax, thanks to the Dar es Salaam Lions Club of Mzizima which recently donated assorted school stationeries to the school. This will lessen learning problems which more than 350 pupils at the school were facing due to lack of stationeries.

Many parents are too poor to afford buying their children exercise books, pens and pencils. And the amount of money set aside by government for schools to buy stationeries is too little to help.

The Gerezani primary school head teacher, Ditrick Mkwela says the government allocates 1,047/- for stationery for each class every term in each school in the country which is not enough at all.

The Lions Club of Mzizima has set aside 100m/- for the school project which will see some primary schools in the country supported with learning stationeries.

The first beneficiaries of the project were pupils of Buguruni primary school also in Dar es Salaam who got the stationeries early this year. The project which took off in December last year is expected to end this coming June with more than 30,000 primary school pupils benefiting.

"When I learnt they were giving out exercise books, pencils and rulers I stopped what I was doing and rushed to the class. I needed these materials so badly, especially exercise books as the ones I have are full," said Lilian Nyoni, a standard four pupil as she adjusted her skirt, before putting the donations she had received in her school bag.

Like Nyoni, Salim Musa, a standard seven pupil was happy to receive the stationeries which his parents could not afford to buy him. Looking at the stationeries admiringly, Musa said, "I asked my parents to buy me new exercise books but they said they had no money. This is God sent I might say.”

The last Friday handing over ceremony was attended by members of the Mzizima Lions Club as well as the District governor of 411B Tanzania and Uganda, Satish Sharma .

The governor praised members of the club for the school project, saying the project would change the lives of many pupils in the country.

“I am really touched by this donation which you are giving today. It is my belief that this gesture will change the lives of many pupils and parents…may you continue helping others,” he said.

The Gerezani primary school head teacher, Ditrick Mkwela was all happy and thanked the club for the gesture which he said will help to lessen some of the challenges his school is facing.

He called upon other organizations to emulate the gesture shown by the Lions Club of Mzizima.

“This donation is a relief to us since we face big shortages of school stationeries here. The money which the government allocates to each school in the country is very small. We call upon others to emulate this gesture,” the head teacher said.

The Mzizima Lions Club secretary, Mustafa Kudrati said his club is committed to reducing some of the challenges facing many people in the country. He said on top of providing the learning materials to pupils, they are also involved in other charitable activities.

Kudrati said as one way of raising money for their charitable activities, his club recently organized a charity golf tournament at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC) where more than 75m/- was raised.

Part of the money was used to reach out to 484 people at an eye camp which was set at Sokoine Regional Hospital in Lindi Region recently.

The eye camp helped them to identify more than 70 mature cataracts and 12 minor surgeries were done as well as more than 50 cataracts were operated.

Kudrati said the camp which started on the 14th of this month was attended by 8 members of his club, 3 supporters from Dar es Salaam and 3 supporters from Lindi. Members of the club volunteered their services and did not use any money raised from the tournament.

The club members were also involved in diabetes screening where more than 290 people were accorded with treatment and medicines.

“We were very happy that at the same camp members of our team devoted their time to screen diabetes patients and more than 290 cases were provided with treatment and medicines,” he said.

They were also involved in a tree planting exercise in the region where they managed to plant more than 50 seedlings of fruits trees in a bid to preserve the environment.